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Meraki Dashboard pros and cons

Vendor: Cisco
4.3 out of 5
321 followers
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Pros & Cons summary

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Prominent pros & cons

PROS

Meraki Dashboard provides robust support and is continuously improving, enhancing user experience and technical assistance.
It simplifies network management by allowing for a single-pane-of-glass view which facilitates multisite management and monitoring.
Meraki Dashboard significantly improves wireless coverage and enhances network visibility and control over user access and activities.
Setting up devices like access points and switches is straightforward and quick, improving deployment efficiency.
Meraki Dashboard enhances network security and analytics, capable of identifying potentially harmful access points and providing valuable traffic insights.

CONS

Pricing and licensing management are seen as major drawbacks, with many users feeling that costs are high and that the software stops working completely when the license expires.
The device cloning and replication functionality is limited, as users can only clone sites but not individual devices.
Integration with third-party switches is problematic, and improvements are needed to better adapt these into the network.
Network troubleshooting capabilities need enhancement, specifically the ability to view live firewall logs and improve the identification and resolution of network issues.
The Meraki Dashboard VPN setup is lacking, with users requesting better support for VPN connections and features.
 

Meraki Dashboard Pros review quotes

IanMacfarlane - PeerSpot reviewer
Aug 16, 2020
The ease-of-use and the analytics are really effective tools.
AH
Jul 16, 2019
An excellent dashboard that is currently unique in covering both SD-WAN and SD-LAN with built-in security.
PT
Aug 20, 2021
Everything is in a single pane and you can look at your network in one centralized place.
Learn what your peers think about Meraki Dashboard. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: October 2024.
814,649 professionals have used our research since 2012.
VP
Jun 1, 2022
What I found most valuable in the Meraki Dashboard is straight monitoring of the different devices, as well as the ability to easily set up VPNs, for example, both Meraki client VPNs and non-Meraki VPNs for different organizations that work with my company. I also like that the tool is a really good firewall.
UA
Jun 23, 2019
The feature I find most valuable is the single pane of glass where you can configure a monitor view, all from one dashboard. For example, on the wireless side, you can configure it under the configuration panel, and then view statistics like location analytics, user analytics, etc.
DD
Oct 6, 2020
The dashboard itself is very simplified and easy to navigate.
Pete Grimshaw - PeerSpot reviewer
Mar 21, 2023
We like how Meraki Dashboard lets you manage all the devices in a single pane of glass. The dashboard is intuitive and easy to use. They are constantly updating the functionality. Switches from other vendors have the same features for the life of the device, but Meraki is always improving.
MR
Apr 27, 2022
We find that Meraki has all the features you need to be able to enable complex network protocols for AV equipment. We deal with a streaming product over IP, and Meraki is fantastic at that.
MA
Jul 20, 2022
It's a scalable solution.
IS
May 26, 2022
Scalability is one of Meraki Dashboard's strongest features. We have thousands of users if we're counting the end-users on our clients' network, but we have hundreds of clients.
 

Meraki Dashboard Cons review quotes

IanMacfarlane - PeerSpot reviewer
Aug 16, 2020
The product is missing a VPN and it is a major issue when it comes to deployment.
AH
Jul 16, 2019
It is not appropriate for large, enterprise businesses.
PT
Aug 20, 2021
Meraki lacks their own software for connecting to the VPN which creates some issues.
Learn what your peers think about Meraki Dashboard. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: October 2024.
814,649 professionals have used our research since 2012.
VP
Jun 1, 2022
For my purposes, I don't need to see any other features added to the Meraki Dashboard. I have no criticisms and I do like the tool. If I had a criticism for it, it would be about the pricing because it could be a little less, but again, for the service that you get, I won't complain about that too much.
UA
Jun 23, 2019
Not a lot of training is available.
DD
Oct 6, 2020
If I am a user and I have a seat on the fourth floor, if I move across the building, the system should be able to track me and should be able to figure out my whereabouts or my position within the building if I'm connected to the wireless. That would make the administrator's life easier in terms of reachability.
Pete Grimshaw - PeerSpot reviewer
Mar 21, 2023
For instance, you should be able to see if something has been blocked by a firewall rule by looking at a live log of traffic moving through the device. It helps you troubleshoot issues and understand if your rules are working. You need to ensure the firewall is blocking the right things. That's unavailable in the Meraki Dashboard. You have to send the logs to a log server. We use SolarWinds locally, but it's not natively built into Meraki. We're also using Cisco ISA and another tool called Smoothwall.
MR
Apr 27, 2022
It's a very complex system. Customers have told me that sometimes there are lots of advanced features that are available and that you can change in the dashboard, but sometimes it's very hard to know what they are.
MA
Jul 20, 2022
Some features could be added.
IS
May 26, 2022
The wait time to speak with a Meraki support engineer is always long, but they get the job done.